Chris is my #1 GadJet Guy. Well, he was my #1 GadJet Guy until he started flying a turboprop. Now he’s my #1 Gadget Guy. He flew in last year sporting a new iPhone.

Mesmerized by that huge screen I could manipulate with my fingers, I wanted one. I really wanted one.

Naah Naah Naah

But when the young man in the AT&T store told me I could only receive email from one email address, I backed down. I asked him several times, going so far as to tell him, I’m pretty sure I can get email from more than one account, but he adamantly told me, “Naah Naah Naah” just like the AFLAC goat.

So I picked up a BlackBerry Curve instead.

And each time Gadget Guy came by with his iPhone, I drooled. It was especially insulting and embarrassing, my stupidity and this iPhone infatuation, after learning that I could have put my email accounts on that iPhone. When I told my highly-geeky, too-brainy-for-words friend Wieslaw what the guy at the AT&T Store told me, he just laughed. I had to confess to him just to make myself feel better. I knew I should have stuck to my guns instead of falling victim to the fallacious he-must-know-more-than-me-he-works-here kind of thinking. (I feel a rant coming on regarding the AT&T stores that have not improved at all since the recent return to the fold).

But I Wanted an iPhone.
I found myself going into the AT&T Store, just to look at that iPhone. Again and again. I felt like I was cheating on my sexy red BlackBerry Curve. Afterall, I get much of my email from different accounts on my BlackBerry without complication. But then Gadget Guy would show up. And I’d have to ask about that iPhone. And the infatuation would bloom once more.

The Tragic Hero’s Fatal Flaw

What they don’t teach you in Literature 101 (and what you should have learned in Physics) you can learn right here: What goes up, must come down. Every Tragic Hero has a Fatal Flaw. And the last time Gadget Guy was here, I learned the iPhone’s Fatal Flaw. It wasn’t as if I was looking for something wrong. He just came right out and said it - identified it for what it was: the only thing he didn’t like about the iPhone.

I Couldn’t Believe My Ears.
A dead battery in an iPhone means packing it up and sending it back to Apple for a battery replacement. WHAT?! I was out of love in less than a nano-second, begging my BlackBerry to forgive my dalliance and take me back.

Thankfully, my prayers have been answered.

My BlackBerry still loves me and I still love my BlackBerry. The Boy Genius, not related to Gadget Guy, gave me every reason to stick with my one true love today… and it is a beautiful thing.

The BlackBerry Thunder

Good bye iPhone infatuation, hello to Thunder Love! It’s slick. Look at the size of that…

It’s hot. Something old and something new…

And it’s oh-so-not-available. Yet.

But you can get a peek at it over at The Boy Genius Report here.

In case you thought pilots were just a bunch of drunks, here’s proof that they’re oh-so-much-more…

High time pilots prove they can remember more than just the checklist… Setting up at Bruce and Sabine’s house is simply plug-n-play. Bruce keeps his drums on standby, always ready to go.

We’ve had pilot parties before, complete with a bass-playing jet pilot, an ex-cop turned jet jockette pianist and assorted pilot groupies who mull about discussing …(wait for it)… airplanes. The conversations were always lively but the music would fall apart after the third or fourth note. You know, you can invite talent into your house, but low(er) time pilots haven’t gotten that flying out of their system long enough to pull themselves together and do something else… like play the instrument they brought to the party. Too much talk about this charter operator, that particular aircraft and the almost-below-minimums approach one brave soul had to make in IMC at the world’s shortest runway.

These guys were serious though.

Old guitarists never die, they just get a chair and play on… That’s The Man of The House on his Limited Edition 1988 Takemine. What a beautiful-sounding guitar… alas, The Man wants a Fender Telecaster - says he can play for hours on that Telecaster… spent almost every moment of daylight this weekend drooling over a Telecaster at Sam Ash.

Guitar Angst

Do you know what happens when an ’60’s era ex-band man goes into a music store and falls in love with a hottie guitar he wants desperately but won’t buy? Why he comes home with a percussion machine, of course! And as you wonder what happened to the tambourine he said he would get for you, he points to the percussion machine and proudly states, “I got this for you!”

Never mind the fact you have absolutely no idea what it does or how it works. What he really means to say is, “Gee, honey, I saw this really neat gadget, I can use to make music and I can’t figure it out… can you make it work for me?”

I guess it’s time to put his Takemine up on Ebay… Anything to keep him off the keyboards, away from some electronic percussion machine and on the strings…

In the distance is Ken, bass-player-extraordinairre and over there on keyboards is Ben. The Leader of the Band… Ben holds it all together marvelously. Our trumpeteer is off-camera, on the couch.

What a night of incredible energy. Not one song fell apart. I was approaching nirvana listening to these guys move seamlessly from rhythm and blues to instrumentals to 50’s pop. That kind of music is the result of years of practice.

So the next time you hop on an airplane, don’t automatically assume your pilots are lazy, sex-mongering drunks. Some of them are damn good musicians too!

Take Stock in Children is a Florida non-profit organization providing scholarships and mentors to children in Florida. If I said to you, “their mission is grand,” it would be an understatement of immense proportion.

Over twenty years ago, my Mom established a scholarship fund, a memorial to my sister who died suddenly. Some of the proceeds benefit the Florida Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches and the balance funds a Take Stock in Children Scholarship.

Awarded to a community-oriented young woman from Broward County who demonstrates academic promise, The Veronica Lee Lynn Memorial Scholarship can be used to pay for tuition, to purchase books or to buy clothes or food. There are no restrictions on the use of the money, as long as the recipient is enrolled at a college, university, technical, culinary or flight school. This year, the awards banquet was held at a packed Signature Grand (Davie) on a sunny afternoon at the end of April. The winner of the Veronica Lee Lynn Memorial Scholarship for 2008 is Samantha Herrera (middle). Ele Bautista-Bernard, Executive Director, Take Stock in Children Broward stands on the left with my Mom, Patti Lynn on the right.

In addition to the recognition awards and scholarships, the Pompano Beach High School drum line gave an incredible, energizing performance. That should have been recorded. It was rousing. Kudos to Samantha Herrera and the members of the PBHS Drum Line . You made our evening!